The different colors on Google Maps generally refer to varying types of government jurisdictions, natural features, and civic areas…
- Light Gray – Municipal boundaries (cities, towns, villages)
- Lighter Gray – School campuses
- Dark Gray – Airports
- Darker Gray – Military areas
- Pink – Hospitals and healthcare centers
- Light Pink – Indian reservations
- Light Green – Areas of thick vegetation or forest, includes privately owned land
- Green – Government-owned parks, forests, grasslands
- Light Olive – National Grasslands (often duplicative with Green)
- Darker Green – Wilderness, Conservation areas, Wildlife refuges
- Blue – Bodies of water
- Light Yellow – Shopping and tourist areas
What Do the Different Colors Mean on Google Maps?
Google Maps does not provide a color key or map legend. However, they have published some insight on what their colors mean. Refer to, “Discover the Action Around You with Updated Google Maps“, and “Google Maps Gets New Look“.
Other countries may have additional sets of colors. This is due to those countries having different sets of jurisdictions than compared to the United States or Canada.
Otherwise, here is a breakdown of what each Google Map color represents (for North America only) …
 Light Gray – Boundaries of cities, towns, and villages. In the case of large cities, this often represents the boundaries of all adjoining cities. |
 Lighter Gray – (Just a tad bit lighter) School campuses, including colleges. Does not normally include private, vocational schools (University of Phoenix, et al). |
 Dark Gray – Airports |
 Darker Gray – Military areas |
 Pink – Hospitals and healthcare areas |
 Light Pink – Indian Reservations |
 Light Green – Areas of thick vegetation. Not normally State or Federally owned lands. Usually private property or county-owned lands. In more populated areas, these are often green belts. |
 Green – National Forests, National Parks, State Forests, State Parks, Municipal Parks, golf courses, cemeteries. National Grasslands are often represented in this color, but are also represented in Light Olive (see below). In the case of National Forests and National Parks, these green shaded areas represent the forest’s or park’s larger sphere of influence, and not the actual boundaries. See, “Why is There Private Property Inside National Forests and Parks?” for more detailed explanation. |
 Light Olive – National Grasslands. Note that Google Maps also represents other National Grasslands in Green. There is no logic to this, it’s just an inconsistency on their part. Note, as with National Parks and National Forests, these boundaries represent the Grassland’s larger sphere of influence, and not the actual boundaries. See, “Why is There Private Property Inside National Forests and Parks?” for more detailed explanation. |
 Dark Green – Preservation areas, Protected areas Wilderness areas, National Refuges, or other areas intended for limited human access, or scientific study |
 Blue – Bodies of water, lakes, rivers, ocean |
 Yellow – Shopping centers, tourist areas |
Look at Kansas, it is half green and half off white. East Kansas is mostly flat with lots of wheat and cornfields, very little trees definitely not think vegetation but that area is green on the map, and on the west side has the flint hills, rolling meadows of green but that half is off white. Nobody has been able to explain this. Maybe you can?
October 30, 2020 at 5:28 pmThe green typically refers to more dense vegetation, like forests, thick scrub, et al. The lighter colors (yellow and white) refer to farm fields, desert, or areas with light vegetation.
November 10, 2020 at 12:59 pmThis is only a partial answer. What about the other colors? Tan, beige, etc.
November 4, 2020 at 11:24 amIn KS, beige is shortgrass prairie and green is tallgrass prairie.
November 14, 2020 at 3:57 amNo mention of the DARK BLUE on the shorelines that I am looking for. Are they marine parks, private areas or what?? why make a point of them if you don’t add them to the key??
November 26, 2020 at 11:24 amCheck out the white for ‘China Clay’ near Wotter, Plymouth, UK.
November 28, 2020 at 4:17 am